Supply Management: Past its Expiration Date!

Lunch on the Frontier with Martha Hall Findlay, December 2, 2013 in Winnipeg.

Despite a professed commitment to free trade, Canada has retained a staunchly protectionist supply management regime in several agricultural sectors, notably in the dairy industry. This forces Canadians to pay twice as much for four litres of whole milk as Americans. At the same time, Canada’s insistence on protecting supply management makes it difficult for Canada to open up access to international markets. This means that all other Canadian enterprises that rely on trade (including the farmers in the non-supply managed sectors who make up by far the majority of Canadian farmers) are being denied lucrative access to some of the world’s largest and rapidly growing markets. The system needs to go.